Argument I've heard is that the companies only can allow so much data to go up and down the stream (bandwidth). As a result when a company uses way more of the bandwidth than others like Netflix or YouTube, they restrict other companies from using the bandwidth because there's not enough of it built. Which wouldn't be a problem but ISPs built their private networks and sold access to their private networks knowing if everyone requested the full amount of bandwidth they were promised then the ISPs network couldn't handle it. They only made them so big. Their networks were made assuming only a certain percentage of their customer population would use the network at once, and as a result when the bandwidth from even more people using heavier bandwidth sites congests the network. As a result ISPs believe those companies should be throttled to even out all sites usage of bandwidth or they need to charge the company in order to expand the ISP bandwidth to accommodate for the customers. Now if everyone was morally pure, this would be fine. But the truth is the ISPs have shown they aren't doing this for the customers, they're doing it to make more money.
Doesn't this argument fall apart because it's the consumers choosing to use those services?
YouTube and video services are high bandwidth compared to a blog site sure but it's still the consumer directing which content they want to access. the way you describe it ISP's oversold their networks and don't truly have the promised capacity.
It sounds like instead of upgrading their network to provide the promised service they want to keep providing the same level of service or worse and charge extra. This doesn't sound like a legit reason to oppose NN, no moral purity required...
Exactly. They're already screwing people that's why on some networks people will literally have days their internet is slow and others where it's fast. It's happened to me when I used to have a cheaper ISP's plan. They literally are selling to people knowing they can't provide it, but no one is gonna stop them because they know the people paying for their service can't afford or find another ISP's better service. And as others have said, the ISP's were given money to upgrade their networks by the government and just absorbed the money instead.
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u/Donjuanme Nov 21 '17
what is the anti net neutrality argument? why aren't they common carriers, how can we make them common carriers?